Article |
MutScreener: primer design tool for PCR-direct sequencing
National Laboratory of Medical Genetics of China, Central South University Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China 1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: 773 834 3604; Fax: 773 834 2970; Email: cliu{at}yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu
The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors
Received February 14, 2006. Revised March 20, 2006. Accepted March 20, 2006.
In searching for susceptibility genes, both positional cloning and candidate gene strategies have been helpful. Mutation screening is one of the many technologies that have been implemented in order to identify mutations or polymorphisms in candidate genes or genomic regions. Since human genome sequence is available, PCR-direct sequencing is one of the major methods for mutation screening or resequencing. Unfortunately, assay design can be laborious if multiple genes or large regions need to be investigated. To solve this conundrum a web-based application, MutScreener, has been developed. MutScreener assists in the analysis of human gene structure and design of PCR/sequencing primer. This application supports batch assay design based on either existing public gene annotation or custom gene annotation. The optional universal tagged primers can support high throughput resequencing processes. MutScreener is available for public use at http://bioinfo.bsd.uchicago.edu/MutScreener.html.